Success Stories

NEW KIND OF OFFICE
Dr. Pete determined that his new office would be technology-intensive -- automated, wireless and paperless.

For his professional and business operations, Dr. Pete purchased RAPID Complete, a modular end-to-end chiropractic office solution with two key components. With RAPID EMR (Electronic Medical Records), the clinical modules enable doctors to automate notes and reporting, complete with coding and compliance support. Correspondingly, RAPID EPM (Enhanced Practice Management) streamlines the fundamental front office applications.

The RAPID Complete solution enables doctors and their staffs to improve efficiency, reduce accounts receivable days outstanding, and manage payer contracts effectively. Among other activities, it automates patient check-in and scheduling, treatment tracking and scheduling, authorization management, billing and collection, and a profusion of management reports.

Using RAPID EMR, doctors can build patient files by tapping checklists, images and diagrams displayed on the interactive computer screen, each of which has

standardized or doctor-customized paragraphs of associated text that go directly into the patient file. In addition to creating SOAP notes automatically, handwritten input can be scribed directly on the screen, and documents from external sources, such as accident reports and X-rays, can be scanned into the patient’s file. All input is automatically assigned to the proper place within the file structure. To produce reports, doctors simply select the desired report and it is generated instantly from the information that is in the patient file.

“RAPID normally would not require a particularly long or difficult learning curve,” Dr. Pete says. “In our case, we were trying to learn everything at once: a brand new practice, digital X-ray and other new equipment, and the RAPID solution. So it was a little more complicated than it might have been had we done it in phases, but now it’s really easy.”

SELECTION CRITERIA
Selection of the RAPID paperless office solution was driven by the efficiency of its notes and documentation capabilities, he says. He sat through numerous product demonstrations, with RAPID emerging as one of two finalists. The clinchers, he says, were RAPID’s reporting capability, its bilingual intake forms in English and Spanish, and the fact that ACOM’s Healthcare Division headquarters were nearby in the Tampa Bay area.

Another key advantage as his practice expands, he says, is that reports will remain consistent throughout, and that he will be able to monitor them on the wireless network. Coding and compliance, he believes, are far too complicated, and while he personally feels comfortable with this complexity, RAPID’s onboard coding and compliance support helps to maintain accurate and complete documentation. This in turn leads to fewer reimbursement delays and denials, and improved cash flow.

Dr. Pete still handwrites some of his SOAP notes, using personal shorthand developed over his years of practice. But the graphic helpers that automate SOAP notes are valuable, he says, noting that simply clicking on graphics expands a patient file with comprehensive, accurate information.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are cutting corners because you can include your own personalized modifications, as well as supplement the automated notes with handwritten input,” he says.

In only a few months of use, Dr. Pete has become an enthusiastic RAPID advocate.

“It saves time, it produces better reports and more complete documentation, and it gets rid of 95% of the manual activity in the office. It eliminates all of the reasons that I ever left the practice in the first place. Now I can put most of my focus on helping people get and stay well. Who wouldn’t like that?”

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